Section B: Key skills
3.1 Approaching Chapter title texts in their context How does context affect writers’ and speakers’ choice of language? What concepts are used to discuss context and language?
Context as spatial The most obvious definition of context is spatial – it is about physical location. In this sense, context affects the language we use in everyday life, not just in formal or professional writing. For example, most people make slightly different language choices when they are speaking at work than they do when speaking at home or in a social context.
Activity 1 What differences are there between how you speak in class and how you speak with your friends? Try to identify ways in which your speech is broadly different (e.g. in structure), as well as individual words and phrases that might be specific to each context.
Key terms dialect: a regionally specific non-standard variety of language, including accent, grammar and word variations from the standard variety (e.g. ‘I done it’) sociolect: a non-standard variety of language spoken by a particular social group
Other features of spatial context affect how people use language, too, such as whether or how well they know the person they are speaking to. People are more comfortable making certain language choices with those that they know well – for example: • •
informal word choices such as slang, dialect or sociolect missing words out (‘You ok?’ instead of ‘Are you ok?’).
Context in terms of audience, purpose and form Context is a combination of factors that exist outside the text, but which inform a text and might therefore inform your assessment of it. As such, it is important to consider context in the early stage of any text analysis. Context = location + audience + purpose + form + mode For more information on audience, purpose and form, see Chapter 2.
Activity 2 Copy and complete the table below to identify the audience and purpose of each of these texts.
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Chapter 3 Key analytical skills: Approaching texts linguistically Text
Audience
Purpose
a broadsheet newspaper article about a new trend in gardening
readers of the to inform and newspaper interested entertain in gardening
a highly illustrated book about the life of a rock star a leaflet in a doctor’s surgery people at risk of about reducing the risk of heart disease heart disease a conversation between friends to plan a holiday
transactional (to get something done)
a young-adult fantasy novel a piece describing a trip to Egypt, published on a travel blog a scripted speech introducing a documentary about wildlife of the Serengeti a review of a hotel left on a travel website As well as audience and purpose, the form of a text is also an important factor in its context. This is not just the case in written texts; spoken exchanges such as a chat with friends or an interaction with a bus driver also have specific forms. At a broad level, spoken texts can be described as transactional or interactional: • •
Key terms transactional: describing a conversation with a clearly defined purpose or function interactional: describing a conversation whose purpose is entirely social
Transactional conversations are about getting things done – whether that is buying a bus ticket, arranging where to meet someone or planning what to have for dinner. Interactional conversations can cover a far broader range of topics (personal, political, ideological, and so on) but ultimately, the point of an interactional conversation is social – to get to know someone better or to express a relationship. Some linguists have compared interactional conversation to animals’ grooming behaviours.
In reality, most conversations are a mix of transactional and interactional, so you will probably identify elements of both types in a transcript. Look at Text 1 on the following page, a transcription of a conversation about homework between a mother (who is a teacher) and her 14-year-old daughter. Note the conventions of a transcription – it does not use standard punctuation or capital letters and instead shows pauses timed in seconds. In effect, micropauses (less than half a second) and pauses are like punctuation. A transcription aims to record spoken language as precisely as possible, without interference from the written form. For this reason, it is not edited (as written language usually would be) to ‘tidy up’ repeated words or take out fillers like ‘um’ and ‘er’, or to add capitals and punctuation, which are ways in which we organise written language.
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Section B: Key skills
Text 1 Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter: Mother: Daughter:
have you got homework → erm (.) ive got english sort of ongoing read[ing homework→ // oh yeah the read a classic thing yeah→ erm (.) and i think (1) in two weeks we have do an a4 (.) sheet (1) basically just (.) its just based around what weve already learnt from [the book (.) so theres a lot of DIFFerent // oh right (.) what youve found out so far→ // options or you can make your own up so you can do like character profiles, you can do summaries (.) er you can do like spider diagrams sort of just sort of THINGS you KNOW (2) its just to sort of prove that youve read it really→ have you got a deadline to have read the book BY → erm (4) its by the end of the topic→ which I dont know when the topic ENDS they didnt tell you that → (2) how you sposed to // well (1) i think] she mentioned it→ but i dont remember (3) ok→ (4) i dont know (2) erm (7) i dont know cause i wouldve wanted to like divide it up→ an // yeah be like (.) make sure ive read this much by (.) then yeah i think its the end of the year→ you think its by (.) July → yeah (1) erm i dont think a shorter deadline would be fair→ (.) given that // dont you → some are reading like pride and prejudice // ok erm because she s that YEAH this is our FInal topic→ she said that yeah yeah yeah I remember now sorry (.) its just come back to me yeah
Transcription key (.) micropause (1) pause timed in seconds EMPHASIS (words said with more emphasis) // simultaneous speech (said at the same time as the line below/above → lowering intonation → rising intonation {laughs} non-speech sounds
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Chapter 3 Key analytical skills: Approaching texts linguistically
Activity 3 Is the conversation in Text 1 mostly transactional or mostly interactional? When making your decision, consider: • • • • •
whether and to what extent it exchanges information how necessary or useful that information seems to be how social or interactional this conversation is whether and to what extent the participants appear to be doing or planning something together what each participant might individually want out of the conversation (i.e. do they have separate purposes?).
When commenting on the form of conversations, you can be more specific than simply describing them as transactional or interactional. For example, you might describe a sales pitch as a ‘persuasive transactional speech’ or an exchange between a customer and a shop assistant as a ‘transactional service encounter’. In analysis of any text type, be as specific as possible and link points about the form of a text to the language chosen. For example, in an analysis of the transcription above, you might note that it is clearly the start of a planning conversation, or a negotiation in which plans are being made. The mother asks a lot of questions or gives prompts that enable the daughter to identify what she needs to do.
Activity 4 Copy and complete the table below, explaining how each language choice is appropriate for the form it has been used in. The first row has been completed for you. Text type
Language choice
an advice leaflet on choosing subheadings a career, aimed at teenagers
an opinion column on litter from a broadsheet
first-person address
a crime novel
metaphor
the script for a television advert for toothpaste
alliteration
How does the language fit the form? it organises the information and enhances clarity for the reader
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